Closing Words Draw On History

February 9, 1999|By R.W. APPLE JR.The New York Times

WASHINGTON — -- With the acquittal of President Clinton all but assured, the chief prosecutor demanded on Monday night that the Senate "cleanse the office" by convicting him rather than resorting to "the Air Wick of a censure resolution."

Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois, the last of 13 Republican prosecutors or managers to speak, concluded his side's case by accusing the defense of resorting to "a theater of distraction and misdirection." He said his side's "most formidable opponent" had been cynicism -- "the widespread conviction that all politics and all politicians are by definition corrupt and venal."

In his closing statement, the main White House counsel, Charles Ruff, urged the senators to focus not upon the minutiae of the lawyers' arguments but upon "voices of greater eloquence than any of us can muster, the voices of Madison and Hamilton and the others who met in Philadelphia 212 years ago, and the voices of the generations since, and the voices of the American people now, and the voices of generations to come."

Ruff concluded as he had begun on Jan. 19: "William Jefferson Clinton is not guilty of the charges that have been brought against him. He did not commit perjury. He did not commit obstruction of justice. He must not be removed from office."

Seemingly drained of emotion and resigned to defeat, Hyde ended with the words, "And now let us all take our place in history on the side of honor, and, oh, yes, let right be done."

The Senate will begin its deliberations today, probably behind closed doors. The votes on the two articles of impeachment, charging Clinton with perjury and obstruction of justice in an effort to conceal his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky, are scheduled for Thursday or Friday. Consideration of a censure resolution could follow.

For all the historical rarity of Monday's session -- only once before, in the case of Andrew Johnson in 1868, has a presidential impeachment proceeding reached this stage -- there was little drama in the chamber. Having gone over the same ground so often, the lawyers could offer little but reheated evidentiary and rhetorical leftovers. And the outcome has been taken for granted for several weeks.

Ruff and Hyde conceded that they, too, like the senators and the nation at large, were weary of it all.

"We are taking the last steps along a path that for most of us has seemed to be unending," Ruff said, and more than three and a half hours later, Hyde echoed, "We are blessedly coming to the end of this melancholy procedure."

But even as he argued for conviction, Hyde put forward a long-shot request to delay the final vote.

In a letter to Senate leaders, Hyde said that new questions about whether White House aide Sidney Blumenthal lied in his recent deposition for House managers warranted the delay.

Among the Republicans, there was a certain fatalistic self-pity. Hyde spoke bitterly of indignities he said he and his colleagues had endured, enumerating "the media condemnations, the patronizing editorials, the hate mail, the insults hurled in public, the attempts at intimidation, the death threats and even the disapproval of our colleagues, which cuts the worst."

He continued to express strong opposition to censure, which is favored by most Democrats and some Republicans as a means short of conviction to put the Senate on record as condemning Clinton's actions.

"A failure to convict will make the statement that lying under oath, while unpleasant and to be avoided, is not all that serious," Hyde declared. "We have reduced lying under oath to a breach of etiquette, but only if you are the president."

A recent poll, as several of the lawyers observed, showed that more than half of Americans thought the president guilty but did not wish him removed from office. The defense drew comfort from this, and the prosecutors expressed frustration at it.

"I doubt there are many people on the planet who doubt the president has repeatedly lied under oath and has obstructed justice," Hyde said. "The real issue doesn't concern the facts but what to do about them."

Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia, who was the first House member to introduce an impeachment resolution over the president's campaign fund raising], lectured the senators about polls.

"Polls played no part in the great and glorious decisions, decisive decisions, that made America a nation and kept it free and strong," Barr said. "Will the principles embodied in our Constitution and our laws be reaffirmed, wrested from the pallid hands of pollsters and pundits and the swarm of theorists surrounding these proceedings?"

The Republicans devoted relatively little time on Monday to the details of the case. Instead, they flung swords of words at the president and his defenders. Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Longwood, said angrily, "William Jefferson Clinton is not a king."